Associations between sleep habits and interference of premenstrual symptoms in athletic performance in Japanese adolescent athletes: a cohort study over a 2-year period

Abstract

Premenstrual symptoms are common problems among female high-school and college athletes. This prospective study investigated associations between sleep habits and interference of premenstrual symptoms in athletic performance among Japanese adolescent athletes. A school-based survey on menstruation and school life was conducted among 623 female high-school students in 2015 and 2016, and data from the two surveys were connected. In total, 262 students completed the questionnaire in both years. We recruited 108 of those students who were athletes with regular menstrual cycles. Participants completed a questionnaire about their premenstrual symptoms and lifestyle habits. The prevalence of short sleep duration (<8 h) was high (95.4%). The difference in premenstrual symptom severity in individual students between the first and second years was not significant (p > .05). Premenstrual symptoms were less associated with disturbance in ‘athletic performance in training or competition’ in the second year than the first. ‘Longer sleeping time’ in the first year was associated with lower risk of increased interference of premenstrual symptoms in athletic performance in the second year (odds ratio 0.982, 95% confidence interval: 0.970–0.994). Shorter sleep duration may therefore have an effect on premenstrual symptoms’ interference with athletic performance among Japanese adolescents.

Chinese abstract

经前期症状是高中和大学女运动员的常见问题。本前瞻性研究调查了日本青少年运动员的睡眠习惯与经前期症状对运动成绩的干扰之间的关系。2015年和2016年, 对623名女高中生进行了一项关于月经和学校生活的校本调查, 两次调查的数据是相互关联的。总共262名学生两年都完成了问卷调查。我们纳入了108名月经周期规律的运动员。参与者完成了一份关于其经前期症状和生活习惯的问卷。睡眠时间短(<8h)的比例高(95.4%)。学生在第一年和第二年其经前期症状严重程度无显著差异(p>.05)。与第一年相比, 第二年的经前期症状与“训练或比赛中的运动表现”障碍的相关性较小。第一年“睡眠时间较长”与经前期症状对第二年运动成绩干扰增加的风险更低有关。(优势比0.982, 95%可信区间：0.970-0.994)。因此, 较短的睡眠时间可能会影响日本青少年的经前期症状对运动成绩的干扰。

Keywords:

• Premenstrual symptoms
• athlete
• high-school student
• sleep habits

Acknowledgments

We thank Audrey Holmes, MA, and Melissa Leffler, MBA, from Edanz Group (www.edanzediting.com/ac) for editing a draft of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported, in part, by grants from Research Promotion and Practical Use for Women’s Health, AMED, Tokyo, Japan [grant number 15666492], [grant number 15665610].